


Hey, Ghastly

by Colerate



Series: Fresh Faced One-Shots [1]
Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Book 1: Skulduggery Pleasant, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Gen, I'm writing a fic as I finish each book, Young Valkyrie Cain, i've only read book one, probably, very light angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-20 17:04:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21060137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Colerate/pseuds/Colerate
Summary: Ghastly is a statue. Statues don't talk. But that doesn't stop Val from telling him about her day.





	Hey, Ghastly

**Author's Note:**

> Technically the tags are lying. I have read the books BUT not since the dying of the light back when it was first published. I have a crap memory so I hardly remember anything...
> 
> To put it into perspective, I was shook when the elders died. 
> 
> Anyway, I'm writing a one-shot as I read each book. I think it will be interesting to see how my ideas and characterisations change as the series progresses. Interesting to me, anyway.

"Hey, Ghastly."

Valkyrie wasn't exactly sure why she was stood in front of him, in front of the statue of a man she had met maybe a week ago. Had it even been a week? She didn't know, she hadn't been keeping count. But here she was, staring into his opaque eyes and still features, watching as if he would respond if she waited long enough.

He didn't.

Nevertheless, she sat on the grass before him with her knees tucked under her chin. He'd been moved since he'd initially turned himself to stone, since he'd sacrificed himself for Val and the good of the world. She didn't know when exactly he'd been moved, just that he had, and Skulduggery had taken her to visit him just yesterday when she'd asked after him.

All things considered, it was a nice little temporary resting place. The garden belonged to China, one property among the many others that Valkyrie suspected she owned. Dainty flowers in perpetual bloom lined the circular perimeter, spots of colour among bushes that were so dark they were almost black. At the centre, Ghastly stood, hands together and frozen in stone.

"A lot has happened while you've been gone," she began. An update on the comings and goings of their lives seemed like a good place to start. "We saved the world, I guess?"

Ghastly did not respond. Oh well. Val's mum had told her that she was a chatterbox enough times for her to know that she could talk enough for two.

"It sounds kind of arrogant when I say it like that, but is it really arrogant to state the truth?" She frowned. "Wait- that sounds like something Skulduggery would say, doesn't it? In that case, the answer is most definitely yes.

"But, yeah, saved the world, the sceptre is broken, Serpine is dust, yardi-ya-da, we're not dead, hurray..." She trailed off, looking away from Ghastly's unmoving form and focusing on the grey sky above instead. "Hurray."

As the first few drops of rain began to fall, she got up from the ground and hugged her jacket close. The walk from his statue to the delicate steel gate was a short one and Ghastly was out of sight within minutes of her leaving.

* * *

The second time she visited, the sky was still grey, but a slightly lighter shade of grey that promised less of a chance of rain. Between then and now, her routine had changed. She was back at school, which was so bizarre in its normalcy that she almost didn't know how to act. The whole building was just full of people ignorant to the wonders of the world just two degrees south of their reality. Once upon a time, she'd been one of them, too.

Her time after school was spent learning an entirely different curriculum under the tutelage of Skulduggery. Despite his fancy for causing trouble and running into action headlong, he was an unexpectedly patient teacher. His sarky attitude remained but he was constructive and kind when it mattered. Regardless, Val gave back as good as she got. It was fun, and not at all like the hours spent behind desks and pencilling in worksheets.

Even though its uncanny nature still unnerved her, she was glad for the reflection. It did her homework so she could spend more time on her... _extra-curricular_ activities.

A week of that had gone by and here was the weekend. Skulduggery was elsewhere, running an errand or something or other. She's asked if she could come but when he had explained what he was actually doing, it had sounded incredibly mundane, so she'd passed. In retrospect, there was a good chance that he'd made it out to be so boring on purpose. Whatever, she had better things to do. Like talk at statues that don't talk back. Well, statue, no plural. Statue-s would imply that she was chatting to any old hunk of rock which would then imply that either she was slightly deranged or had a strange idea of what constituted as a hobby. Or both. Definitely both.

"Hey, Ghastly," she said and, as expected, Ghastly did not say hey back. Something within her brain was still let down by this, which was monumentally silly because Statues Don't Talk. She'd already established that.

"Skulduggery has been teaching me magic," she clicked her fingers and watched with a small amount of wonder as a flame ignited in the space between her index and thumb. Even though magic was no new thing to her now, the disbelief still caught her sometimes. Most of the time, actually. She could make _fire_ without a _lighter_. Wow.

"I can't do much yet, but he says I'm progressing quickly when accounting for certain variables. I don't know what these variables are but I got the impression that he was making fun of me. He tends to do that, make fun of me. But I make fun of him too so we're even."

While his features didn't change, Valkyrie liked to imagine that Ghastly would have smiled at that. Then she wondered if he could hear her. It took all of three seconds for her to conclude that he probably could not. She drooped a little at that.

"Well," she said after clearing her throat. "See you later, Ghastly."

* * *

Weeks went by, slipping by like the water between her fingers when she practised her magic by the sea. That element was proving to be quite the menace to get a grasp on. Luckily for her, living for so long appeared to have tempered skulduggery's measure of patience. Sure, he didn't like waiting and when he wanted to do something, he wanted to do it there and then. But he seemed to appreciate the small things, like sitting on the rocks and watching the waves while Val failed to manipulate the ripples to her liking. In those moments, she liked to wonder what was going on in his skull, when he just sat there, completely still. Thinking, for sure, of what, she didn't know. Probably either really clever things or really, really stupid things. Nothing in between, that much she knew for certain.

As time passed and her skills improved, she continued to visit the garden and talk to Ghastly. Ghastly continued to stand still and be silent. Gradually, the awkwardness of thumbling through one-sided conversations faded and Ghastly kind of became a diary. Except, she couldn't revisit her entries. She just sort of said what had been going on, and, well, there wasn't much more to it. But it was nice and she'd been visiting more and more frequently as the days went by.

Where at first it had been a sombre thought, she was now kind of hoping that Ghastly couldn't actually hear what she prattled on about. It wasn't embarrassing, per se, but she'd gotten comfortable enough for her mouth to run away with the script and, really, did Ghastly need to know that Olivia Smith had pulled down Oliver Smith's trousers in the courtyard at school during break? Granted, it had been hilarious, but she didn't think Ghastly would care about what the kids at her school got up to.

So, there she had been, pretending that she wasn't putting as much effort into bouncing a flame from one hand to the other as she was in actuality while filling in Ghastly on the horrors of Mrs Mund's Monday morning Geography class, when someone interrupted her.

It wasn't Ghastly, who looked exactly like he had done the first time she visited, although he was looking a little more green with moss now. No, it was a very familiar set of light footsteps padding over from the gate behind her.

"I was wondering where you were spending all of these odd hours," Skulduggery said in lieu of a greeting and settled down next to Val on the grass. The afternoon sun had meant that Ghastly's shadow had completely enveloped Val but it didn't quite reach skulduggery's head. Later, it would, if he chose to stay that long.

"What? You mean that you didn't figure it out straight away? What sort of detective are you?" Val responded with a smirk.

"Who said I didn't? I knew from the very beginning, I just chose to leave the reveal until later to build tension," Skulduggery explained away with a wave of his skeletal hand, ungloved now that they were within the sanctuary of the garden.

"You could have just said you were respecting my privacy, or, I don't know, something even a little bit believable."

"You have no appreciation for the dramatic arts, kids these days, I swear," Skulduggery tutted.

For a while, they were quiet, just watching as the sun sank in the sky and haloed Ghastly.

"Do you think he can hear us?" Valkyrie asked, putting a pause on the silence.

"I should hope not, I feel I may have been oversharing a little during my own visits."

"Oh, well, stone is pretty good at soundproofing, I think, so you're good."

The silence resumed. It was of the comfortable variety, so Val didn't mind. If Ghastly could indeed hear them, it allowed him a reprieve from all of the chatter he'd had to endure these past few weeks. Only when the sun sank so low that Ghastly's features became hard to decipher did they break the quiet again and leave the garden.

"Will you drop me off at Gordon's?" She asked as they passed through the gate which creaked ever so slightly as it swung closed behind them.

"How do you know that I'm driving? I could have walked here."

"You drive everywhere."

"That's not true, I think you'll find that I'm very conscious of the environment."

"Oh, would you look at that, the Bentley," Val pointed out once they reached the car park.

"A Bentley. It might not be mine. I'm sure plenty of people drive Bentleys around these parts."

Val didn't even deign that with a response. She just climbed into the car and, sure enough, as did Skulduggery. But he did not start the car.

"Wait... is that a second Bentley over there?"

"It appears to be so."

"We're in the wrong car."

"Yes."

"You followed me. Into someone else's car."

"That I did."

"Just so you know, Ghastly will be hearing about this tomorrow."

"He won't be able to hear you."

"You don't know that."

"Well, I have it on good authority that stone is a pretty good soundproofing material."

A beat passed. Skulduggery's smug attitude was nearly palpable.

"... I'm getting out of the car."

Just before she could go for the door handle, Skulduggery retrieved a set of keys from his jacket and started the car. "You shouldn't exit a car while it's moving, it's bad for your health," he said, casually.

"Ghastly will definitely be hearing about this tomorrow."

"I thought we had just established that he wouldn't be able to hear you?"

"I'll find a way. Just watch me."

**Author's Note:**

> No spoilers, please! I truly cannot remember the plot for the life of me (I remember random things, like the spider guy and the teleporting boyfriend vs the vampire boyfriend). But do feel free to comment, I love hearing what people think.
> 
> Wanna check out what I'm up to fandom wise? I have a Tumblr dedicated to my ao3 and fandom activities [here](https://colerate.tumblr.com/) under the same name.


End file.
